Lena Dunham apologizes for 'distasteful' abortion comments

Lena Dunham has apologized for making a "distasteful joke" and appearing to trivialize abortion during her podcast.

The Girls star came under fire on Tuesday (20Dec16) when she said she wished she had personal experience of going through an abortion so she could use her celebrity platform to beat the stigma surrounding it.

During her latest Women of the Hour podcast, the actress and women's rights campaigner said, "Now I can say that I still haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had."

Following the backlash, she has taken to Instagram to write a lengthy apology, telling fans she never meant to trivialize the procedure or steal the focus away from their important discussion on women's reproductive choice.

"I truly hope a distasteful joke on my part won't diminish the amazing work of all the women who participated," she wrote. "My words were spoken from a sort of 'delusional girl' persona I often inhabit, a girl who careens between wisdom and ignorance (that's what my TV show is too) and it didn't translate. That's my fault.

"I would never, ever intentionally trivialize the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy. My only goal is to increase awareness and decrease stigma. I take reproductive choice in America more seriously than I take literally anything else, and therefore own full responsibility for any words I speak that don't convey this truth clearly."

She continued by apologizing to the women who placed their trust in her to stand up and raise awareness for their rights. Like putting money in a swear jar for cursing, she added she would be giving a sizable donation to abortion funds in New York, Texas, and Ohio to say sorry for messing up their pro-choice messages.